Haman-gun Coordinates Proper Rice Production Through Alternative Crop Cultivation

Stabilizing Rice Prices and Resolving the Issue of Excess Rice Supply

Haman County is implementing a comprehensive rice production management plan, including the strategic crop direct payment system, the ‘Support Project for Cultivating Other Crops in Paddy Fields,’ and agreements to reduce rice cultivation area, to stabilize rice prices and resolve the issue of rice oversupply.

Haman-gun provides support of 1 million KRW per hectare for cultivating alternative income crops instead of rice in paddy fields, and 4.3 million KRW per hectare for summer forage crops, limited to farmland where summer forage was grown the previous year.
[Photo by Haman-gun]

The target rice cultivation area for the county in 2023 is 4,732 hectares, which is a reduction of 248 hectares (5%) compared to last year’s 4,980 hectares.

The ‘Strategic Crop Direct Payment System’ is an expanded and reorganized version of the existing direct payment system for paddy fields. It provides support of 500,000 KRW per hectare for single cropping of winter crops, 1,000,000 KRW per hectare for single cropping of summer crops such as soybeans and flour rice, and 4,300,000 KRW per hectare for new single cropping of summer forage crops. Additionally, an extra 1,000,000 KRW per hectare is paid when double cropping is done with wheat or forage crops in winter and soybeans or flour rice in summer.

For the ‘Support Project for Cultivating Other Crops in Paddy Fields,’ 1,000,000 KRW per hectare is provided when cultivating other income crops instead of rice in paddy fields, and 4,300,000 KRW per hectare is supported for summer forage crops only on farmland where summer forage crops were grown the previous year.

Furthermore, the ‘Rice Cultivation Area Reduction Agreement’ allocates an additional 150 to 300 bags of public stock rice per hectare when farmers cultivate other crops or leave the land fallow this year on farmland used for rice cultivation last year and participating in the reduction agreement.

Applicants must be registered agricultural operators and can apply at the township or town office where their farmland is located by May 31. Overlapping support is possible depending on the crop.

An official from the Agricultural Technology Center stated, “Reducing rice cultivation area is inevitable to solve the oversupply problem caused by decreased rice consumption and to stabilize rice prices,” and added, “We ask for active participation and cooperation from farmers.”